Indora no Hikari (インドらの光), launched 10/20/1987, developed and revealed by Kemco
That is solely the 4th recreation to heart on the DQ type turn-based fight. As was the case with Glory of Heracles, Indora no Hikari nonetheless isn’t a exact DQ clone however does some individualistic issues. The video games wiki lists it as a kusoge however given when it got here out, I don’t know if it’s so horrible. There are just a few main annoyances, nevertheless it avoids two of the widespread pitfalls of those early video games — the sport doesn’t drop you right into a loss of life lure, and (so far as I noticed) progress doesn’t depend on discovering obscure secrets and techniques or continuing with none hints. That is the second recreation to have a battery backup save fairly than passwords.
The story is fairly fundamental — the planet Ibal has benefited from the facility of the god Barn, however Barn’s supply of energy, the Gentle of Indora, has been stolen by enemies, and you need to get it again. Apart from the conclusion of the story which has a shocking twist, I don’t suppose the storyline develops that a lot through the recreation. At the start, you might be introduced with a smaller job, to heal the illness of the Princess of the Farei kingdom.
You begin out in Farei. One of many frustrations that you simply rapidly encounter is navigating the cities — the cities are a lot bigger than they have to be, and to speak to individuals it must be nose to nose. Nonetheless, you may go round city and get quite a lot of helpful recommendations on tips on how to play the sport and a few tips on the place to go. There are additionally numerous retailers however because you begin with solely 100 gold there’s not an excessive amount of you should buy.
All the cities, dungeons, and overworld are handled Zelda-style with separate screens. In case you are enjoying with none assist, the very first thing to do can be to map the preliminary island space to determine what’s on the market. At first I wanted to maneuver up just a few ranges earlier than I felt protected venturing past the opening screens, though the preliminary enemies are straightforward sufficient that this can be a easy course of.
The monsters are seen on the map and transfer round; touching considered one of them produces an encounter.
The battle system is at all times vs 1 monster (even later once you get allies). It’s pure flip based mostly DQ type.
One different side that’s clearly Zelda influenced are hidden staircases that you would be able to get by pushing rocks on the overworld. These often have cash in them, however typically they’ve folks that promote issues. One other risk is the selection of three chests (one other seemingly Zelda impressed function).
Finally you discover the second character, Saba. That is the place one other one of many annoyances of the sport (and continuously complained about options) arises. For some cause they’ve companions comply with you, and so they transfer way more slowly than you do. They’ll get trapped behind obstacles, and for those who change screens once they can’t meet up with you due to an impediment, they get trapped there till you return for them or solid a spell that brings them to you. I’m unsure what the designers thought this added to the sport — maybe they thought it made it more durable to evade the monsters on the world map?
Moreover, when your companion dies, the method to carry them again is time consuming and cumbersome. You’ll be able to simply reload your save, after all, however the one different various is to return to city, pay somebody there to have the companion’s spirit recalled, then return to the place they died and use a spell to revive them (with low HP so they could get killed once more). Apparently late within the recreation you get a spell that simply restores them immediately, however that takes some time.
I solely performed by the primary continent of the sport. Mainly that is what you do (all of it may be found out by clues within the cities and by experimenting pushing rocks)
- Get Saba, the primary companion (who can transfer boulders that the principle character isn’t sturdy sufficient to maneuver)
- Go a temple, the place the elder tells you you’re the chosen one. He allows you to be taught spells and tells you that you simply’ll want 3 statues to save lots of the world, the primary of which is held by a dragon in a close-by cave.
- Discover the Silver Arrow below a rock, and purchase the Gold Bow
- Go to the Dragon Cave, and use the Silver Arrow within the battle, then kill it
- Have somebody in one of many cities use the Dragon Fang you get to make a medication
- Give it to the princess to heal her, then get the King’s permission to go on to the following continent.
I didn’t discover the sport particularly problematic (for 1987) on this part of the sport. However given what I see individuals say concerning the recreation on-line, it have to be that over the course of all the recreation the issues with the system turn into extra acute. I do not forget that Inconsolable Nung (I want he hadn’t nuked his weblog) performed this and he didn’t prefer it in any respect.
I really used the wayback machine to discover his evaluation — he gave it a 25/100, and it does look like the companion problem was an enormous downside.
